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  • He Is So Good to Us!

    Pastor John, 

    This morning I have cried, spoken in tongues and felt sweet Jesus all the way to work!  Beth and I have been listening to a lot of the old CD’s.  It is just one good meal after another.  This morning I was listening to Lou testify about a dream she had and God was telling her that we are as children’s toys, useless until our Master uses us.  It was so good.   

    As I was listening my heart was full of thankfulness.  I’m so thankful to be in this body.  Listening to these CDs you can see and feel how much Jesus loves us.  He is our hero, our teacher, our friend and our comfort.  I feel like complete putty in his hands this morning.  Whew….we are truly rich!  I wish all of God’s children could feel this, Pastor John!  I just want to drink it all in!

    I just can’t stop crying this morning!  His goodness is just so great it makes you leak all over!

    Thank you Pastor John for all the good food you’ve given to us!  I’m blessed to have you as my Pastor…..we all are!

    Michelle 

     

  • Jesus in Torment?

    Uncle John, 

    If Jonah was a figure of what would happen with Jesus, then was Jesus tormented like Jonah was for those three days? 

    The way Jesus was talking about trusting his Father to not leave him in the heart of the earth (in Psalm 16:9-10) makes it seem that he didn’t want to go there any more than he wanted to go to the cross, or even come to earth to start with (Ps. 74:11).  I always thought that once Jesus died here on earth that his troubles and tormenting life were over, and the heart of the earth was just a pit stop along the way back to his father. But now i wonder if his pain and suffering didn’t end until things were put in order in heaven when he was with his father again?

    Is that right?  

    Abby 

    ========== 

    Hey, my sweet Abby! 

    I recently found out that some leaders in the Charismatic Movement teach that Jesus was tormented in hell during the three days that he was in the heart of the earth.  However, that is hard for me to believe.  Jesus would have wanted out of the  heart of the earth (hell) because even the Paradise part of it was not a desirable place (though the Paradise part of hell was preferable to the Torment part).  After all, Abraham was in Paradise (Lk. 16:19ff), yet he was glad to see Jesus’ day (Jn. 8:56), for it brought him hope of getting out of the heart of the earth.  So, the Son of God, knowing that the Father would send him into the heart of the earth, would have spoken through the prophets about the Father’s faithfulness to get him out of that awful place. 

    As for Jesus suffering torment in the heart of the earth, no righteous person was ever cast into Torment; so, unless Jesus’ taking on our sins made him unrighteous in God’s sight, he would not have been sent there.  Some will argue that when Jesus took on our sins, he DID become unrighteous in God’s sight.  And Paul did say that God made Jesus “sin for us, so that we might be made the righteousness of God in him ” (2Cor. 5:21).  So, “there you go”, as your cousin Elijah often used to say.  If one believes that taking on our sins made God’s Son worthy of suffering beyond the grave, verses exist that he can use to defend that position.  I just don’t see it that way.

    Uncle John

  • Coming Judgment

    Pastor John, 

    Last night as I was getting into the shower, I raised my arm and a loud and painful “crunch” emanated from my shoulder area. For the first time, I felt the love of God toward mankind, in that pain.

    I realized that with every ache and pain, every gray hair and degree of faded vision, Jesus is telling us all, “I’m coming.” The decline of our physical bodies is God helping us to see every day that He is true, and that this life is temporal; judgment is coming.

    If God took a man in the prime of his life and health, it would come as a surprise to him. He would never know that time was running out.

    God has loved us in putting us in these decaying vessels. Every ache and every pain is pleading with men to repent, while there is still time. 

    Jerry

  • Paying More of Our Debt

    Pastor John, 

    Riding into Raleigh this morning, I spent my time feasting again on sister Sheila’s testimony from Saturday night, replaying it in my mind (and my heart) as I drove.  Somewhere during the part where Sheila entreats us to take heed of the fact that “we will pay our debts to God before leaving this world if we are going to be saved,” God interrupted my thoughts.  The injection of His thoughts over my own was overwhelming to me, and it frightened me, as the message that I heard came with a sound and a feeling that scared me.  I did my best to record it as I drove, so that I could type it later.  This (below) is the best that I can do to reproduce what I heard.  I hope I have succeeded.

    “Is God going to pay more of our debt?  If we are debtors to people’s hearts, and we don’t make that right, is God going to have to make it right, and are we going to owe him for the work that he’s done again?”

    If we hurt the people around us (after we are born again) and we don’t make those things right, and those people have to cry out to God with tears in prayer, and God has to come and mend those hearts because we did not, that is God paying our debt, AGAIN, after the sacrifice of his son!  Will God pay our debt again!? 

    Is God going to pay more of our debt!?

    It scared me brother John.  I started pleading with God, “Please let me pay my debts.  God, please show me who it is that I owe; please show me who I’m in debt to, so that I can take care of my own debt and pay what I owe before the judgment comes.  God, allow me to pay my debt, so you don’t have to, once again.”

    The last thought I had was of the man thrown in jail, that Jesus spoke of in Luke 12:59,  “I tell you, you will not get out until you have paid the very last penny.” 

    Good night,

    Jerry

     

  • Seeing the Face of God

    Hello Pastor John!!!

    Studying…studying…studying…! This has perplexed me:

    How do I reconcile the verses of

    Genesis 32:30 and

    Exodus 24:10 and

    Exodus 33:11 and

    Exodus 33:v18-23

    with 1st John 4:12?????

    We presume that NO MAN or WOMAN has ever seen the face of God, as John wrote. Yet, God appeared (as a messenger) to Jacob at Penuel; and in His glory to the elders of Israel in 24:10; and to Moses in the subsequent verses above. It even says “face to face” in Ex 33!!!

    Can you clarify?

    Brad

    ==========

    Hi Brad!

    Learning these things is exciting, isn’t it?

    First, let’s consider Genesis 32:30, where Jacob wrestles an angel. Here is our translation of that verse:

    Genesis 32

    1. And Jacob called the name of the place Penuel (1) because he said, “I have seen God face to face, yet my life was spared.” (2)

    Let me point out that Jacob also said that seeing his fierce brother Esau (after 20 long years) was like seeing the face of God:

    Genesis 33

    1. And Esau said, “I have much, my brother; keep what is yours for yourself.”
    2. And Jacob said, “No, please! I pray, if I have found favor in your eyes, take my gift from my hand because I have seen your face, as seeing the face of God, and you are pleased with me.

    At Penuel, Jacob was so overwhelmed by his experience of wrestling all night with an angel, that he described it as seeing God face-to-face, but that is not what happened, any more than Jacob had seen the face of God when he met Esau. In a previous verse (Gen. 32:24), we are told that “a man wrestled with him until dawn.” But it wasn’t a man, either. The apostle John revealed to us that angels are, in general, the size of humans (Rev. 21:17), and anyone who has actually seen an angel knows. This is one reason the Bible sometimes refers to them as men, as in Genesis 18:2, but even there, the three “men” who visited Abraham are later revealed to be angels (Gen. 19:1), and one of them is even called Jehovah Himself (Gen. 18:22–33)!

    But to get back to Jacob’s wrestling partner, the prophet Hosea got it right when he said that Jacob “contended with an angel and overcame” (Hos. 12:4).

    Now, for Exodus 24:10

    Exodus 24

    1. Then Moses and Aaron, Nadab and Abihu, and seventy of the elders of Israel went up.
    2. And they saw the God of Israel, and under His feet was something like a paved work of sapphire as pure as the sky itself.
    3. Yet He did not stretch out His hand against the chief men of the sons of Israel; they beheld God, and they ate and drank.

    The controlling factor for any scripture in any book which speaks of someone seeing God, such as the following from Exodus 33, is what God Himself told Moses in Exodus 33:18–20:

    Exodus 33

    1. And he said, “I pray, show me your glory.”
    2. And He said, “I will make all my goodness pass over before you, and I will proclaim ‘Jehovah’ by name before you. Moreover, I will show favor to whom I will show favor, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion.”
    3. But He said, “You cannot see my face, for no man sees me and lives.”

    This is what John meant in 1John 4:12 when he wrote “No one has ever seen God”. Moses saw God (from behind):

    Exodus 33

    1. And Jehovah said, “There is a place by me, and you shall stand on the rock. 22. And it shall come to pass, as my glory passes by, I will put you in a cleft of the rock, and I will cover you with my hand until I pass by.
    2. Then, I will take my hand away, and you will see my back, but my face shall not be seen.”

    Isaiah saw God:

    Isaiah 6

    1. In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord sitting on a throne, high and lifted up, and His train filled the temple.

    Amos saw God:

    Amos 9

    1. I saw the Lord standing over the altar, and he said….

    Others also saw God; however, none of them saw His face. Otherwise, they would have died; God said so! So, those verses mean only that those men were brought into the very presence of the Lord. (3)

    By the way, someone may ask you a question about John 1:18, for in most translations, that verse is very similar to 1John 4:12. However, we chose to translate it this way: “No one has ever understood God; the unique Son who is next to the Father (4) made Him known.”

    Finally, in Exodus 33:11, the phraseology is admittedly arresting, but what the write meant is only that Moses was in the very presence of God. The event that is being described is Moses’ occasional, private entrance into the Most Holy to speak alone with God, which no other man was ever again allowed to do. There with Moses in that holy place, God would audibly speak with Moses from between the cherubim which were built into the two ends of the mercy seat which covered the ark of the covenant within the Most Holy Place. (5)

    Exodus 33

    11. And Jehovah spoke to Moses face to face, as a man speaks with his friend. Then he    returned to the camp, but his minister, Joshua the son of Nun, a young man, did not leave the tent.

    Here is what that verse is talking about:

    Exodus 33

    1. And Moses took the tent and pitched it outside of the camp, removing it from the camp. And he called it the tent of meeting, and everyone who sought Jehovah went out to the tent of meeting, which was outside the camp.
    2. And it came to pass, when Moses went out to the tent, all the people rose and stood, each at the entrance of his tent, and they watched Moses until he went into the tent.
    3. And it came to pass, when Moses went into the tent, a pillar of cloud came down and stood at the entrance of the tent, and He talked with Moses.
    4. And all the people saw the pillar of cloud standing at the entrance of the tent, and all the people rose and bowed down, each at the entrance of his tent.
    5. And Jehovah spoke to Moses face to face, as a man speaks with his friend. Then he returned to the camp, but his minister, Joshua the son of Nun, a young man, did not leave the tent.

    I hope that clears things up. Please let me know if I can do more. And do pass on my love to those studying these holy things of God with you.

    Love you all.

    Pastor John

    Footnotes:
    (1)    That is, face of God
    (2)    All translations are ours unless otherwise noted
    (3)    It is interesting that in both Isaiah and Amos’ cases, the person they saw was the “Lord”, not the 3 “LORD”. Many times in the prophets, when they were moved to say “Lord” instead of “LORD” – and unbeknownst to them, of course – the Spirit was referring to the hidden Son, not to the Father. Jesus referred to one such case in Matthew 22:41–45, quoting Ps. 110:1.
    (4)    Literally, “in the bosom of the Father”, a Greek idiom meaning “next to” or “close to”. See 4 13:23.
    (5) About a dozen times in the Old Testament, God is said to “dwell between the cherubim” (e.g., 5 1Sam. 4:4; Ps. 80:1; etc.). And in Exodus 25:20, and 22, when God was telling Moses to built the tabernacle, He said, “the wings of the cherubim shall be spread out above, their wings overshadowing the mercy-seat, with their faces one toward the other. The faces of the cherubim shall face the mercy-seat…. And I shall meet with you there between the two cherubim that are over the ark of the testimony, and I shall speak to you from above the mercy-seat all that I command you for the children of Israel.”

  • The Fear of God

    Pastor John, 

    This morning I was listening to a CD from 2006.  You were talking about serving God acceptably, and how we serve Him acceptably in response to the Spirit moving, that no matter what we do, unless it is in response to the Spirit, it is not acceptable.  You started talking about the priests who wear the white collar and how that was just acting.  You said, “That stinks to my spirit, and their response is go sit in the peeew!”  Then Sandy started laughing, and she said God always gets the last laugh.  Then her laughter turned frightening, and she began to speak, “I hate that, I always get the last laugh.”

    Pastor John, I’ve never felt anything like that before.  The fear of God fell in my car and made every inch of my being tremble.  I was almost afraid to move, to think the next thought.  

    Hebrews 10:31  
    “It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.” 

    Amen 

    Michelle

  • Sheila’s Blessing

    Pastor John,
     
    Tonight, I feel like we all were rewarded by sister Sheila doing her part with God, and testifying to the results.  She became the results!

    Her testimony about her recent experience with the Lord is one of those rare and awe-inspiring gems that I am thankful I was here to be able to see, and hear, and feel.  And the preaching from you that followed felt like the result of Sheila’s digging so deep with God and then testifying about it.  It was like her godly testimony pulled that wonderful message out of you! 
     
    I love what I saw, and heard, and felt tonight!  
     
    We have the ability to get somewhere with God if we want it.  I saw Sheila do it!
     
    I feel like I got a peek tonight at “old time holiness.”  That solid, deep-rooted “Friend that sticks closer than a brother” feeling that is often talked about when folks refer to the old Preacher Clark recordings.

    Sheila’s testimony tonight also taught me that we, as God’s children, can stir up those kinds of feelings among us. What we felt tonight was because of Sheila’s efforts toward reaching God. She provoked God – in a good way!  She dug for God’s gold; that is why she struck gold!  When she dug deep enough, God poured it out, so much so that it poured out over all of us!  Sheila became a walking blessing for anyone who would hear, and she achieved that blessing by getting down to business with God.  That precious testimony she gave, those feelings that we all partook of tonight, were there waiting for Sheila on the other side of her desperation for the Lord.  She had to act on it.  What else is God waiting to give us if we dig deeper? 
     
    Sheila told us tonight that God made it clear to her, “We will all pay our debts before leaving this world.”  God is going to require of us what we owe, if we become debtors to people’s hearts, including His, in this lifetime.  I felt in my soul that I was glad that God is that way – just, faithful, and dependable, as faithful to punish our disobedience as he is faithful to reward our obedience.  In my spirit, even though it makes me tremble, I know that it is right, and I want it to be that way.  It makes me fearful of “the goodness and severity of the Lord”, while making me feel very safe.
     
    “God’s Majesty, God’s Glory, God’s Power, God’s Righteousness… and I am a little worm.” 

    That was so Beautiful!

    Thank you God for letting me witness her testimony! What a glorious night.

    Jerry

  • Longing for Jesus

    Pastor John, 

    This morning, driving in to work, I was listening to Gary sing “When those feelings come”.  The spirit fell, and I began to thank Jesus for letting me feeling him.  I felt that sweet quivering up and down my arms, and my heart was overwhelmed.  Then Jesus put a prayer in my heart for J—, E—, S—, T—, M— and others who have gone astray.  Then I heard the spirit say, “Remember.”

    Memories of when I fell away from the Lord, and how I longed to feel him again, flooded my mind and heart.  I remembered how I would lie in bed at night crying because I missed feeling his touch; my heart would just ache.  I asked Jesus to please let their hearts ache for him, to long for his touch again.  I started praying for all God’s children, thinking of how glorious it would be if we could all be together.  It was very sweet to have those sobering feelings this morning. 

    When I got off the shuttle, there was an older gentleman standing by the curb, and when I walked by, he smiled and said, “Have a glorious day!”  I thought, yes, Jesus makes it glorious!  

    Michelle

  • The 1975 Prayer Meeting

    (The following comments refer to the post titled: Notes from a 1975 Prayer Meeting, posted 10/3/2018.)

    Pastor John.

    I was writing down my feelings while listening to the CD of your Father, Uncle Joe, Brother Earl and others last night, from a prayer meeting in 1975. It  brought to my mind feelings of honesty (with themselves), sincerity, humility, faith in God, and desperation, and their need for God.  If we are honest with ourselves, that can be our “judgment”.  We can hear and listen to the saints in those old meetings, and it will expose not only our weaknesses, but also any strengths that we may have, such as faith, sincerity, etc..  I feel that sincerity for the truth is one of the biggest weapons that one can desire to have.  You could feel the love of God and for God when each soul on that CD testified.

    Their testimonies were real, and you could feel their infirmities and their hurts. Their desperation, their sincerity, and their love for God and others saved them in their daily lives.  Thank God that God entrusted Brother Earl to record those meetings!  Gold is gold, no matter what decade it is found in.

    I have to travel today, but I sit here with tears rolling down my face for the love that I am feeling for each and every one of those old saints, and the love that I’m feeling for us.  It is a precious gift to each of us, what God had done to bring us together.  I pray that I take advantage of His presents as well as His presence.

    One of the most beautiful things is that we are in the meetings now and in the presence of saints who were there: Earl, Betty, Barbara, and you. What an honor!  I’m beside myself to think that I’m in their mist.  I pray that our children can feel the  good things of God from us, and that they will say the same things about us when they grow up and listen to us on some type of recordings.  

    All I can say is, Thank you, Brother Earl!

    Billy

    ==========

    The notes from that old meeting that you sent to us are wonderful reading! 

    God was speaking to my heart Wednesday night as we listened to this CD of that meeting.  I heard several things, but one thing has really stood out to me again today, after reading this part again from brother Murray:

    “Uncle Joe (‘Hilliard’) told about a man who had cancer, and 

    some folk came and prayed for him, saying, “If it is your will, O God, heal him.” 

    Uncle Joe was glad no one prayed for him like that when he had cancer. He knew it was God’s will to heal him.  He just had to make things right in his spirit and then contact God for the healing God wants His children to have.” 

    I felt God talking to my soul Wednesday night, telling me that not only is he “willing” to heal us, but that he also PAID for the opportunity to heal us.  He paid for the opportunity to wash our sins away, and to heal our infirmities. 

    After hearing that, I said in my heart,  “LORD, why would you have to pay to do anything?”  And my thoughts then went back to a meeting in Louisville, KY, a decade or so ago, when you asked all of us out there, “Why do men have to die?”  The answer was, “because God is Holy.”  Because of who God is, men have to die – once. God’s holiness demands it.

    I then understood that the holiness of God also required that a price be paid for us to receive His Spirit, and His healing, and His salvation, even if God was the One who had to provide the payment for it.  A sacrifice had to be made to bridge the gap between God and man.  God’s holiness demanded that as well.

    That was so sweet to my soul. 

    I thought, “God, what kind of being are you, that You would pay to heal me? That you would pay to wash my sins away – not yours God, but MINE.”

    It took my breath.

    I then considered what it means when we “pay”  for something here on Earth.  It means we surrender something that we have of value, to get something else that we value in return.  I then realized, God reached into his own pocket and paid what was dearest to his soul, His Son, for  me.

    He paid because I couldn’t, so that he could do good for me.  There is no love like that in a human being, or on Earth. It is not of this world.

    Jerry

    ==========

    Pastor John, 

    I loved listening to the Old Meeting CD on Wednesday night.  The humility, sincerity and love of God saturated my soul.  

    A few parts that stood out to me:

    I loved Aunt Leatha’s testimony about Clyde.  When she was praying for him, it touched me deeply, then when you said afterward that that was her former husband that left her and took the kids, I just had to let that sink in.  It was so good, so honest, it made me hunger for a heart like that.

    I loved when your father said, “We’ve got to come out and be separated, and obey God, and be obedient to Him, and stay in touch with him, and every time there’s a failure or anything not satisfaction [with God], let Jesus make intercession – continuously.  If he was to give up that job [of interceding for us], we’d all perish. The first time you did a thing or said a word, and you did anything displeasing to God,  it would all be over. He’s right there. He’s got one hand down here reaching for you, and got a hold of the Father with the other one.” 

    I love this!  Having our comforter to make intercession for us!  Imagining Jesus holding on to his Father’s hand while reaching down for us, what sweet, tender love that is.  It makes me want to hold on tighter!

    And when Uncle Joe was telling about the man who had cancer and the man was praying “if it’s your will”.  But Uncle Joe said he knew it was God’s will to heal him. He “just had to make things right in his spirit and then contact God for the healing God wants His children to have.”  That just stirs up faith deep inside!  What sweet confidence in Jesus and his promises!  How encouraging!

    I just love it!  These testimonies never get old, they are as filling now as I’m sure they were in 1975.  What a treasure!  

    I’m very thankful for Uncle Earl taping these meetings way back then so we can hear them and love them!  I love hearing Uncle Earl testify; he has the same heart today as he did then.  

    Thank you Pastor John and Amy for typing these notes!

    Michelle

    ==========

    Thank you and Amy for the time you spent organizing and writing the notes for the 1975 prayer meeting we listened to, and to Brother Earl for recording their meetings all those years ago.  They are such a treasure to my soul!  I love how real everyone was when they spoke.  The testimonies are as relevant now as they were then, and they really touched me.  I loved the preaching from Preacher Clark so much.  I was thinking this morning that I really wish I could have spent some time with your daddy (I already know I would’ve loved him)!  I am so thankful for the connection I feel with all of those old saints!  I love them all!
     
    I hope future generations will listen to our meeting CDs and be refreshed and encouraged from our testimonies and songs and your wonderful sermons the same we have been encouraged listening to theirs.  I believe anyone who is hungry for the truth will love what they hear and feel when listening to our CDs!  (Just like they are now). 
     
    Thank you for sending out these notes!  They really blessed me this morning!
     
     Lee Ann 

    ==========

    Amen!  The truth is eternal, Lee Ann.  I bet if we could hear the apostle Paul preach, we would feel right at home.  How blessed we are!  I hope we are thankful enough.

    Pastor John

    ==========

    Dear John, 

    Thank you typing out the notes for the cd, one wonderful pearl after another! Thank you for feeding us the good things that you have been taught and have loved from a young man! 

    The feelings of unity that came from your father, Uncle Joe, Br Earl, and Aunt Letha were so honest and from the heart that it made my heart love them more. 

    I love the effect that the truth produces in our hearts as we receive what is said. It makes us know there is no age or time in the Spirit. It is always a fit and timely message. It makes my heart long for home!

    Good night and look forward to seeing everybody tomorrow! 

    Bess

    ==========

    We have cleaned up the note that I gave you last Wednesday night, and have added  a lot.  I thought some of you would like to see the final version of the notes. (see post: Notes from A 1975 Prayer Meeting, posted 10/3/2018)

    Pastor John

     

  • Your Anointing

    Hi, John. 

    We know you have an anointing to be a Pastor and Teacher for us.  Some, if not all of us have been healed in some way by you praying for us. I lot of us are here today because God put us on your heart.

    Was there a time that you knew this, or was it a gradual thing that happened after Preacher Clark grew older?  I heard you say that God took over your education.  Did that happen during that time?

    So glad that I was rescued in order to be here.

    Thanks!

    Billy

    =========

    Hi Billy.

    As you have probably heard me say a few times, I have never claimed to be anointed and sent to heal the sick.  I have had no such experience, and have never asked even for it.  All I have ever asked Jesus for is enough power and wisdom to take care of the flock he has given to me. That’s all I have ever wanted, as far as miracle-working power is concerned, and with that, I am content.

    I am very thankful that “the prayer of faith heals the sick”, and that the sick and hurting have at times been miraculously healed when I, or we as a group, have prayed for them.  I pray for that grace to continue with us.

    Thank you for your question.  It was one worth asking, and I hope my answer is sufficient.  If not, let me know, and I’ll try again.

    Love you, Brother Billy!

    Pastor John

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